While drinking a cup of coffee this morning, my thoughts went to a scene I saw a couple of days ago. I was in my car, turning left at a corner in front of a park fence. Across the street in front of me was a group of older adults wearning masks. They were giving anyone who passed, in a car on on the sidewalk, an evil look if they were not also wearing a mask.

Our area doesn't require using a mask now unless you are not vaccinated (for Covid-19). So my thoughts once again were "Why are they doing this?"

This got me thinking about the words "Peace" and "Safety". I wrote on this in my journal, then decided to share it here.

Peace: everyone says that is what they want, but the more people strive for it, the less peace there is in the world. Why?

The story of Genesis told us, the law of Moses told us, many of the prophets in the Bible told us, Jesus told us, the Apostles told us, and more recently Anthony De Mello told us; the problem is in the human heart.

It is not the law; nor is it by force, nor is it by delusion that peace results. The problem is us.

Consider these facts:

1. People thought they could build a better society (and some even thought they could bring in the Christian Millenium) by their own will around the turn of the last century. They created Prohition. What was the results? A huge increase in organized crime, deaths from alchohol poisoning skyrocketed, and the number of alchoholics in the country quadrupled.

2. In more recent times, public awareness and the force of law combined to make it illegal to discriminate again people by the race they belong to. The result? The attitude is still in society but forced underground, resulting in the some the biggest race riots we have seen in decades.

3. There are persistent attempts by those who are dreaming to strip the people in our land of guns using the force of law. Those who hold this view believe that depriving someone of one weapon will magically make the hate in that persons heart go away. The result? Mass shootings, people being killed in knife and nerve gas attacks, a rise in violent crime, and a rise in corruption of both the law and the forces assigned to defend it.

Efforts throughout recorded history tell us the same things over and over again, yet foolish mankind thinks that if they try "just one more time", they will have peace.

The classic definition of insanity is to continue trying to do something that you know will fail - and expect a different result. What does that say about us?

Our hearts need to be examined by taking the blinders off and observing ourselves. Set aside your ego and all those labels you identify with, and observe yourself objectively as you go through your days. Ask yourself "Why do I think that?" out of curiousity, not judgement, and keep looking for the answer. If you do that, you will begin to see why mankind will never have peace. We need a heart transplant first! We need a heart that seeks what is REAL, one that understands what selfishness is, and one that knows what drives all of the evil that we do, even when we think we are doing good.

Since we are imperfect, we cannot get a heart that is by our own efforts. We CAN improve if we make observing ourselves a habit.

The scriptures have many prophecies about God's people Israel and the future, and all of them say the same thing; the will be gathered, given a new heart, and dwell in peace.

The old heart we have just won't do it. The best you can do is to know yourself, use that knowledge to praise God for sending you life this moment, and as much as you are able to live in His Love and share that Love with others. Jesus is the only perfectly aware person who has walked among us and he knows our hearts completely. It is time to strip away what you and I think we know an follow him.

There now, I have said all I can say for today. It's time to get out of the pulpit!

Till next time,

Duane